Thousands of council staff are to get three months' notice of sweeping changes to their pay and conditions after a crunch council meeting last night.

Conservatives - who took control of the council last June - pushed through a ruling to "implement" a controversial pay offer.

They said seven years of talks over "single status" was long enough and rejected calls by Labour and Socialists to go back to negotiations with trade unions.

The decision means new pay and conditions for thousands of staff from June 1. Some will eventually lose up to £8,000 a year, while others will gain, some substantially.

The full impact will not be felt for five years.

Council leader Ken Taylor accused Socialist leader Dave Nellist - who addressed an angry crowd outside the Council House - of using "mega-phone diplomacy".

He told Labour leader John Mutton, who had worked for years on trying to reach a deal with unions: "Quite simply, you're incapable of negotiating with your friends. The friends, as you know, are unions.

"If you keep on running down to the depot saying okay, will pay you more, don't go on strike - what a great way forward!"

Cllr Mutton in turn said the national agreement gave the council until 2007 to reach a deal and imposing it on staff would demoralise them.

He said: "How does the Conservative council show its thanks to staff for all their hard work? By stabbing them in the back."

Cllr Nellist warned: "This will bring a sense of grievance to this city that we haven't seen for many, many years. It's going to be a serious political and industrial breakdown.

"One bloke summed it up today - he said: 'They're going to take £3,000 off me in this so-called deal. If that's what they decide to do I'd rather invest £3,000 on the picket line and try to get them to change their mind.'

"Now £3,000 on a binman's wage is 10 weeks on the picket line."

Deputy council leader Tony O'Neill said Conservatives had the courage to take tough decisions to deliver equal pay as required by law.

He said: "It is about fairness, about equal pay for equal jobs. I think it's most unreasonable for people opposite to talk about undue haste when they've been at it for seven years."

Binmen and union officials watched from the public gallery as the heated meeting began with a row about who was allowed to speak and vote.

Some councillors were angry at getting a letter on Monday from council officials advising that only those without friends or relatives working for the council could take part.

Labour leader John Mutton asked for the whole meeting to be postponed until after it was sorted out by the council's standards board. Conservatives voted him down. ..SUPL: